If you’re up for a story about far-future Buddhists, ecological devastation, and what our descendants might think of us, check my most recent publication, “The Bodhisattvas”, which is now available over at the latest edition of Subterranean Online, guest edited by Jonathan Strahan. (Also, stories by Maureen McHugh and Tom Holt! I think more stories will be going online throughout the month so do check back on it, too.) It’s especially wonderful to share a TOC with Maureen, who I count not just as one of my teachers and a literary hero but also as a friend.
Month: May 2010
“mash aigre”?
This weekend is busy, I have cleaning up and stuff to do, but I absolutely had to get some serious brewing done as well. So I did the very first step, and I’m about to do one more thing and get it done, and the do the stuff I have to do, like cleaning up, laundry, and grading. (Oh, and wandering off to someone else’s computer to try get my Emart order sent off too. I’m pretty sure there’s something with my current installation of Internet Explorer 6.0, but I can’t seem to fix it.) Anyway, pardon my French in …
Wow, JAO Now…
Well, today’s a bit day for brewing stuff, as I have a few things to get done/out of the way before the weekend arrives, and because I decided to give myself a little fun to make up for the frustration I’m having with Emart’s website. (I’ve been ordering groceries online without real problems for over a year, but suddenly nothing is working again. Well, no, that’s not quite right. Rather, when I select my address for shipping, the dialog tells me I haven’t selected an address and can I please input one again?) It seems something has been changed in …
Why I Think Korea’s “Not Really Confucian” (And That Saying It Is Doesn’t Help Things…)
UPDATE (20 min after posting): Okay, the title of this post is probably a cheat for something much more complex I’m trying to say. This is a blog. Sue me. ORIGINAL POST: Today a student dropped by my office to discuss an academic project she’s working on, and we got into a discussion of whether we can lay blame for various patriarchal ills in modern Korea at the feet of Confucianism. During this discussion, I confessed that I don’t think we can. Or, rather, that I think blaming Confucianism is, like blaming Christianity, simply a lazy shorthand. This is not …
More Random Pop Culture Stuff
The more times I teach this American Pop Culture course, the more I begin to find other ways it could be taught. One way I’m thinking is that I could simply take seminal films — The Godfather, Annie, Tootsie, Do the Right Thing, King Kong — and then explore all the various cultural dimensions that wouldn’t be apparent to students coming at them from outside Western culture. But I like the way I’m teaching it now, with lots of readings and so on. I have a very interesting observation on one of the books I’m reading for the course, but …